Learning Python

I like to casually peruse job openings just to make sure that I am learning all the skills I need to move to another job if needed. I'm not planning on leaving my job any time soon, I just like to keep myself marketable. A lot of other data analysis positions ask for knowledge of Python and R. I am getting some R experience at work doing statistical significance, but there isn't a lot of call for Python, so I thought I would actually sit down and really learn it after dabbling in it for a few years.

I looked through a couple of "Learn Python" websites before finding this Reddit post where the person was looking for exactly what I wanted. I dislike the websites where your code has to match the key EXACTLY and I would rather have the key just check my result against expected. I am working through the "missions" on Check.Io and am really enjoying it. I thought I would document my journey through learning Python on here mostly as a reference for me, but maybe it will be fun for other people as well.

One of the first tasks is to write a program to convert numeric values to Roman numerals. For my solution, I decided to create a dictionary that holds the numeric to numeral translation (1 = I, 5 = V, etc) and then set up a function that takes each place (one, ten, hundred, thousand) and converts it to Roman Numerals.

	#Roman Numerals
	#Converts any number from 1 to 3999 into Roman Numerals
	#Dictionary to translate numbers into Roman Numerals
	def RN_RomNum():
	RomNum = dict()
	RowNum[0] = ''
	RomNum[1] = 'I'
	RomNum[5] = 'V'
	RomNum[10] = 'X'
	RomNum[50] = 'L'
	RomNum[100] = 'C'
	RomNum[500] = 'D'
	RomNum[1000] = 'M'
	return RomNum
	#Function that creates the Roman Numeral "Pattern"
	#Uses the Dictionary.
	def translate(x,low,med,high):
	RomNum = RN_RomNum()
	if x == '0':
	return ''
	elif x == '1':
	return RomNum[low]
	elif x == '2':
	return RomNum[low]*2
	elif x == '3':
	return RomNum[low]*3
	elif x == '4':
	return RomNum[low]+RomNum[med]
	elif x == '5':
	return RomNum[med]
	elif x == '6':
	return RomNum[med]+RomNum[low]
	elif x == '7':
	return RomNum[med]+RomNum[low]*2
	elif x == '8':
	return RomNum[med]+RomNum[low]*3
	elif x == '9':
	return RomNum[low]+RomNum[high]
	#Main Function
	#Converts numeric into a 4 character string and runs each of those "places" through
	#the translation above.
	def convert(x):
	if x >= 4000 or x < 1:
	return 'Error: Please choose a number greater than 0 and less than 4000'
	strX = str(x) #Converts to a string
	while len(strX) < 4: #Pads number with zeroes to end with a 4 character string
	strX = '0' + strX
	one = translate(strX[3],1,5,10)
	ten = translate(strX[2],10,50,100)
	hund = translate(strX[1],100,500,1000)
	thou = translate(strX[0],1000,0,0)
	result = thou+hund+ten+one
	return result

view raw RomanNumeral.py hosted with ❤ by GitHub